Articles of note
I read the editorial, ‘A hard look at soft skills’ with deep interest. I have been a school teacher for more than two decades and have always enjoyed the talk and laughter of children in school. But I often find teachers shouting at the top of their voice to get the children to keep quiet with the result that the teaching-learning process gets strained and noisy. Living in noisy surroundings can lead to several illnesses. So a rethink on soft skills is imperative today. Soft skills are healthy; let us tell our kids that.

I also quite liked the article ‘Dealing with year end tension and exams!’ by Suchitra Reddy. The author cites the case of her son simply copying from the internet to complete his projects. I completely agree with the author that in this IT world of quick and easy access, children fail to process the information they copy. Thank you for sharing your ideas.

Anita Choudhary, Indirapuram.

“Hey! look, look! These ants are walking in a line!” You hear the excitement in their voices and the claps and peals of laughter. When you look at their faces you get a glimpse of all the emotions they are feeling – wonder, curiosity, excitement, happiness.

Why do we believe that learning can happen only within the four walls of a classroom? Why do we curb the natural instinct of young kids to explore? A simple walk in and around the school/neighbourhood can teach children a lot more than simply sitting in the classroom. Try taking your pupils out for an exploratory walk. Remember not to give too many complex instructions which will only spoil the purpose of the activity. Of course, simple instructions such as – walk in small groups, do not run or push others, look around, observe and collect objects you find interesting – can be given. Once that is done you are ready to start your expedition with these young explorers. Once you come back from your walk let your students drink water (which is a must); give them five minutes to settle down before you can begin your activities. You will be amazed at how many different subjects you can teach them using this simple exercise. But before you start make sure that you have chart paper, colour pencils, and chalk. The activities listed here may run over several class periods, so you may wish to choose those that are most appropriate to your group. Children at this level react very well to immediate experience, so make the most of what they have to say about their short walk and build upon that.

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Rocks and minerals form a part of the middle and high school curriculum. The topic is not covered all at once – teachers will need to come up with teaching strategies that fit the level of age, interest and opportunities. In the first box below, you will see how the topic was introduced in a non-conventional classroom; the learners in this group have academic abilities ranging from classes V to VII. The conversation with that class shows that one does not have to use typical classification and listing methods to launch the topic. The teacher can key it into the lives of students – and games, which are highlighted in this example, are only one place to start.

“Do you play with stones? – Yes, kit-kit (a version of ekki-dokki), five stones, etc.”
“Do you use the same stone for both the games? – No, for kit-kit we look for flat ones; whereas to play five-stones, we must get round pebbles.”
“Can you not flatten the round ones for kit-kiti? – No, the flat ones are very different. They have layers of some kind, whereas the round ones appear to be uniform (homogeneous). Even the stones kept in the aquariums are different.”

The author is a teacher at Shikshamitra, Kolkata. She can be reached at malasree.dasgupta@gmail.com.

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In 1951, the Indian Constitution had promised universal primary education by the beginning of the next decade. But, it did not happen by 1961. Despite several projects that were launched subsequent to the National Policy on Education (NPE, 1986 and 1992), the aim of universal enrolment, retention and achievement in elementary education has remained unfilled. Currently, efforts are underway through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to provide universal access to elementary education, while quality of education is still elusive.

The idea of right to education (RTE) and neighbourhood schools was first mooted in 1964 by the Kothari Commission. It is necessary for teachers to become literate about the new constitutional provision as a law in the area of elementary education. Consequently, elementary education for children in the age group 6 to 14 will be free and compulsory under the law and will be deemed a fundamental right. Since, 25% of the seats in private schools are to be reserved for poor children in their vicinity, it is quite essential for all teachers and other school functionaries to become literate about the RTE provisions.

‘The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill’, is listed to be taken up in Rajya Sabha in the current session of Parliament. The implementation will be a joint responsibility of the State, teachers and parents for educating children with judicial intervention. The Centre and the states will be required to spend Rs 2 lakh crore for the successful implementation of the Bill and to ensure elementary education of reasonable quality.

The Bill proposes that both government and private schools across the country do not fail students for poor performance until they complete elementary education up to grade eight.

Educators believe that kids do not necessarily learn out of fear of tests and examination. Instead, they learn if you provide them with a supportive learning environment and right kind of learning experiences.

Implications:
On passing of the Bill and its becoming a law, it will have the following implications for schools:

1. Schools will not fail or dismiss students. Expelling non-performing children would invite penalty.
2. Examinations will be optional by emphasising continuous and comprehensive evaluation with additional remedial coaching.

Currently, more than 50% students drop out of schools without completing eight grades due to poor quality of schooling.

The Bill envisages that the education system is of a reasonable quality in order to support the new rules. Some feel that the Bill is very demanding on the schools and teachers and they would require to be adequately trained to ensure quality.

Getting ready to ensure RTE
Thus, the schools and teachers will be bound by law to be sensitive towards children, and to perform, and deliver. Therefore, there is dire need for school teachers to discuss and debate the implications of RTE. When quality of education becomes the main issue, the quality standards for different school inputs, processes and outputs need to be defined so that facilitative learning and formative or criterion–based evaluation would be required to become central to children’s schooling. The criterion for educational quality is generally seen as ‘80% of children achieving more than 80% marks’ in a valid end-of-the session test all over the world.

The ABC of right to education

A: Assuring and ensuring quality of elementary education for all.
B: Bill of RTE introduced in Parliament in 2002, to be taken up for hearing in the current session of the Parliament.
C: Children in the age group 6-14 years are to receive education.
D: Development of children in cognitive, psychomotor and effective domains.
E: Equity in education, i.e., gender and social equity.
F: Free and compulsory education.
G: General education for all, i.e., no specialisation at elementary school level.
H: Healthy and supportive learning environments in schools.
I: Integrative, inclusive and compensatory education.
J: Jacking up the law-enforcing machinery against violation of RTE provisions.
K: Kothari Commission mooted the idea of RTE in 1964.
L: Learning to be regarded as innate human potential.
M: Management panels of the elementary schools to have parents as members.
N: National commission on elementary education set up.
O: Optimum facilities and support structure being provided.
P: Private tuitions by teachers to be prohibited.
Q: Quality standards to be articulated.
R: Reservation of 25% seats in private schools for poor children.
S: State and system to be held accountable for safeguarding RTE.
T: Teacher accountability for performance and delivery of teaching services.
U: Universal quality elementary education is the mandate.
V: Vacant post of teachers not to exceed 10% of total sanctioned posts.
W: Waited for 44 years since 1964 for having a law-bound RTE.
X: X-raying the education system periodically to diagnose its health.
Y: Yes to child protection and rights.
Z: Zero defect strategy for quality.

The author is Senior Fellow, Centre for Unfolding Learning Potential, Jaipur. He can be reached at lalit_culp@rediffmail.com.

Dance? Bharathanatyam…? What are you going to do with it…? Are you not too old to learn it…? Etc., etc., etc.

Questions came up constantly… I was a kindergarten teacher and had been in the profession for four years already; I was 23 years old and was learning Bharathanatyam. I wanted to learn the art. I loved dance and was elated when I learnt that my student Sanjay was the son of the well-known dancing couple, the Dhananjayans. I approached them and told them that I had no interest in becoming a performing artiste, but that I wanted to learn the form of the dance just to feel it in my body.

To my delight, I found that I was bringing whatever I was learning during my dance classes into my classroom. Indian performing arts are mathematically wired, they are descriptive and concise. So I went about applying everything I learnt in the dance class to my teaching whether it was the lower kindergarten class in the morning, (story telling with mudras, numbers in dance steps, nursery rhymes with expressions) or English or Environmental Studies for classes 2 – 6 in the afternoon (narration through gestures, body language, finding hidden meaning, the root of a word, saying something in different ways, etc). And of course for the cultural activities, by trying to get the students to become choreographers. The more I studied dance, the more I saw its use in my class.

Then came the introduction to rural performing arts. These are called folk arts as opposed to the classical arts but I have a problem with that classification. Everything is folk for me. There were techniques to learn from a theatre form like koothu. Therukoothu uses several amazing dramatic techniques in telling a story. A character enters from behind the curtain. Here too, performance is happening, with the actor acknowledging the musicians, getting his crown tied on his head after he has performed a few steps and (for instance) sung that the character Duryodana will enter, etc. After the curtain or thereshile is removed, he sings, I Duryodana have come. He gives a synopsis about himself depending on the scene that will be played. The Katyakaran (one who binds the story – sutradhara in Sanskrit) asks him questions about the reason for his appearance.

Would any teacher not do this? Summarising the lesson, asking questions about it and coming to the present? How about dramatising it, giving the student time to assimilate the subject, to decide what is going to be said about a lesson, be behind a curtain to gain confidence, then come out and speak about a character/subject/paragraph/idea that is being represented or narrated. I have had students talk about abstract concepts like hot and cold currents as if they were characters. The more I got involved in traditional art forms, the more I saw educational implications in them.

Natyashastra, the ancient Sanskrit treatise on theatre, talks about four modes of communication. They are Angika, Vachika, Aaharya, Saathvika. Angika is communication through body language without the use of words. Vachika is communication through words and verse (add music and effects to it). Aaharya is costume, decor and external aids like props and stage sets (Think teachers’ own dress code, using teaching aids, making the classroom beautiful with students’ artworks, posters, etc.). Saathvika is achieved through deep inner resonance with the content one is communicating. Don’t we use all these in our day to day classroom teaching? Can we give them some more attention?

I developed activities based on the four modes and my teacher workshops began with my colleagues in my school and now with several groups of teachers from other schools. Techniques of traditional performing arts come of use in every one of these. After all, the Natyashastra says, the very idea of creating the arts is to make it easy to understand and bring the difficult teachings of the philosophies to everyone in an audiovisual manner. Is that not what we are doing in the classroom? Bringing a text to life just as an actor does? Are teachers not performers? Don’t they need to capture the attention of the student sitting on the last bench in the classroom?

Natyashastra talks about audiences for a performance. The Utthama, Madhyama and Adhama. Utthama are the know-alls. They have already assimilated what is going to be performed, know the background details, etc. The Madhyama audience is one that knows about the subject but not the details. Adhama is one that has no prior knowledge of the subject and needs to be spoon fed. Natyashastra says a performer needs to cater to each group as part of the audience and prepare the performance in such a way that it has something for each. Do we teachers do that? It is so easy to respond to the Utthama in the class. Pat come the answers. What about the Adhama?

Gandhi has something to say about this: “I will give you a talisman.” He said “Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test: Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man (woman) whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him (her). Will he (she) gain anything by it? Will it restore him (her) to a control over his (her) own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.” I wonder if we teachers can apply this to our teaching in the classroom.

Gandhi believed that spinning promoted “the education of becoming and being”. Spinning combined head and heart, emotion and intellect into a living faith. Why did spinning disappear from public space and education space? Are we too much tied to text book learning and knowledge memorised to give any space for it in our schools?

This was the reasoning behind creating The Aseema Trust, to bring traditional performing arts, spinning and Gandhi to schools. The Aseema Trust has been conducting sporadic workshops with Charkha spinning as a tool to discuss respect for diversity, peaceful conflict resolutions and need for cleanliness and public sanitation. We embarked on two projects. One was “using traditional performing arts as an empowering tool for young girls” and “Spin a Yarn – self and society”, to have spinning wheel as a craft activity around which children discuss and learn about conflict resolution, respect for diversity, handlooms, handicrafts, sanitation and ecology. Simple living and not being greedy are subjects we discuss in a once-a-month meeting we have with class 7 or 8 in ten schools of the city. Students have focus group discussions and create charts. So much learning happens through this.

Gandhi said, “A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns more from them than he teaches them. In this way, a true teacher regards himself as a student of his students. If you will teach your pupils with this attitude, you will benefit much from them. (Talk to Khadi Vidyalaya Students, Sevagram, Sevak, 15 February 1942 CW 75, p. 269).

So while dance opened my eyes to a way of doing and seeing in the classroom, Gandhi’s words provided the reasoning behind that way. Dance and performing arts had indeed opened a new way to teaching.

For more information on the Aseema Trust visit: www.aseematrust.org

The author is founder of the Aseema Trust, Chennai. She can be reached at vrdevika@gmail.com.

The Sage South Asia Edition has brought out three books on interventions in the classroom for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD and Asperger Syndrome. The books focus on each of the three disabilities and provide guidance, support and suggestions to teachers accommodating children with these disabilities in the inclusive classroom, or an integrated educational set-up. The publication is timely, as schools, educational institutions, media and civil society in India are re-orienting their outlook vis-à-vis disability. Special attention is brought to bear on Autism Spectrum Disorders and ADHD as disabilities that require focused classroom attention. Traditionally, these disabilities are not readily identified as types of developmental disabilities (also known as mental disabilities or intellectual disabilities), thereby posing challenges to the instructor in the non-inclusive classroom as well as an inclusive classroom.

The book on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) aptly carries the sub-title ‘Interventions and Treatments for Children and Youth’. The Spectrum usually includes disabilities related to social interaction, communication and behaviour patterns such as autistic disorders, childhood disintegrative disorder, Rett disorder and Asperger Syndrome.

The book is a collaborative effort with contributions from different authors, under the primary author, Richard L.Simpson, a professor of Special Education at the University of Kansas. Autism spectrum disorders are defined in the early part of the book, in keeping with international classificatory bodies and manuals such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (IV), the Autism Society of America, the International Classification of Diseases-10 and the definition according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 1997 (USA).

Considering the locale and experience of the authors, readers should be advised that many of the instances and suggestions provided are appropriate for the US/UK environment. However, some of the interventions the authors recommend under the sections “interpersonal relationship interventions and skill-based interventions and treatments” can be adapted to different contexts, with the help of specialised training in using this intervention.

A major section of the book is dedicated to describing and evaluating different kinds of interventions that can be adopted by teachers and instructors working with children who have ASD-interpersonal relationship interventions, skill-based interventions and treatments, cognitive interventions and physiological/biological/neurological interventions and treatments.

Briefly, DTT intervention is defined as grounded in behavioural learning theory principles and applied behaviour analysis. This is a strategy to teach new skills to children. To quote, “A trial is considered to be a “single teaching unit” that consists of the following components: presentation of a discriminative stimulus (SD) (teacher’s instruction), the child’s response (R), and the consequence (SR).” The efficiency of this method lies is the teacher’s ability to break down lessons into simple steps so that ambiguous and extraneous use of language (eg. words) can be reduced and instructions can remain concise and clear.

Another book in the series, Teaching Young Children with ADHD works more like a handbook where you could flip to the section you’re interested in and read on to learn either about teaching writing skills to a child with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or about medication and ADHD. Its user-friendly format allows the reader to peek into a child’s daily life through the detailed case illustrations. The book is co-authored by special educators and a psychiatrist and is commendable in its attention to detail of the different aspects of teacher-student interaction. For instance, an entire section of the book is dedicated to what teachers should know about medication for children with ADHD. This section is presented in the form of FAQs and functions as a ready reckoner which allows a teacher who is hard-pressed for time to just flip to the question she requires an answer for.

Brenda Smith Myles’ book on individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS) is in the same vein as the ADHD book, providing illustrations in the form of case studies which delineate the stereotypical characteristics of children with Asperger Syndrome. At a very basic level, individuals with Asperger Syndrome are distinct from persons with Autism in that, they want to interact with others despite their lack of interaction skills. The authors point out that advanced verbal skills in such individuals often mask their communication shortcomings, thereby challenging educators and peers.

This book concentrates on adapting a child with Asperger’s to the inclusive environment, and offers suggestions which help the teacher make modifications in the physical, social and intellectual environment the child is located in. Of particular interest may be the section titled ‘Academic Modifications’ which focuses on school activities that pose challenges to a child with AS such as fine-motor skills. The author and her collaborators suggest that certain classroom accommodations could be adopted which reduce the challenge faced by the student. For instance, the student may be asked to write only key words in response to a question, where the standard requirement is to furnish details in complete sentences; or, by modifying assignments and tests to include multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank and short answer questions in place of essay questions. As children with AS have difficulty paying attention to instructions that are presented verbally, modifications in instruction delivery style might prove very important.

The authors recommend that the student’s attention may be established through a visual cue like a tap on her desk or by placing a picture prompt in front of her or some form of standardised visual symbol.

The three books answer questions that teachers struggle with, on a daily basis, while working with children with ASD and related disabilities. The information is comprehensive if one disregards the fact that the contexts portrayed and readers addressed are almost entirely western. One can argue that it is not the business of these books to take into account culturally diverse ideas about childhood disabilities, where it might be the case that characteristics classified as ADHD or even Asperger’s are not considered ‘abnormal’ or ‘inappropriate’ in a particular cultural context. However, the language used to present the information is simple and accessible to Indian readers. The authors caution that professional training in specific fields, say ASD, might make the books more relevant to users and applicants. In all, the series is a significant beginning for educators in India interested in learning to engage with students who don’t typically fit the bill ‘developmentally disabled’.

Autism Spectrum Disorders: Interventions and Treatments for Children and Youth; Author: Richard L.Simpson; Sage, New Delhi. 2008. Rs.350
Teaching Young Children with ADHD: Successful Strategies and Practical Interventions; Authors: Richard Lougy, Silvia DeRuvo, David Rosenthal; Sage, New Delhi. 2008. Rs.295
Children and Youth with Asperger Syndrome: Strategies for Success in Inclusive Settings; Author: Brenda Smith Myles; Sage, New Delhi. 2008. Rs.295

The writer is a Doctoral Candidate in the Disability Studies Program,University of Illinois at Chicago. She can be reached at shilpaa.anand@gmail.com.

A red letter day in the annals of cinema for the ardent Indian movie buff, February 23, 2009. It is not often that the Academy of Motion Pictures in the US rolls out the red carpet for a film that has all the ingredients of a feel-good Bollywood masala, and then proceeds to honour two Indians, who worked behind the scenes, with an Oscar. For the party animals amongst us, this wonderful achievement calls for a celebration: time to break open champagne bottles, and paint the town red.

Red letter day, roll out the red carpet, paint the town red: all idioms with the splash of colour. Leafing through the index of an idiom dictionary, one finds English has a generous sprinkling of everyday expressions in which ‘red’ figures. In addition to the three included in the first paragraph, the following are a few (red) idioms that we encounter daily: red tape, see red, in the red, turn red, red herring, and red eye. If you are wondering whether English is secretly leaning to the Left, then let me assure that it is not! As far as idioms are concerned, the English language is a prism; it makes use of all the colours of the rainbow.

Colours have become an integral part of our everyday language. One may ask if there are reasons, logical or otherwise, why a particular colour was chosen over another in certain expressions. Today’s column will deal with the origin of four very different idioms; the only thing common among them is that they are members of what I would call the ‘red’ brigade. Let us begin with ‘red letter day’. As you are probably aware, special or important days are frequently referred to as red letter days. Is the rising or setting sun redder than usual on these special days? Given the fact that we are talking about red ‘letter’ and not red ‘sun’ days, it is perhaps a rather silly question. Is it possible there is a letter of the alphabet that is redder than others? Before you turn red in anger and send this magazine flying across the room, here’s something for you to chew on: the ‘red letter’ has nothing to do with letters at all. In fact, it has more to do with numbers; dates, to be more precise. Calendars in Medieval Europe weren’t as colourful or as fancy as they are now. The dates were highlighted making use of black and red ink. Ordinary days were marked in black ink, and days which had a religious significance–saint’s day, church festival, etc.- were written in red ink. The term ‘red letter day’ was originally used to refer to a holy day. With the passage of time, however, the idiom lost its religious significance; it began to mean ‘a special day’. Nowadays, when we see a date marked in red ink, we rejoice: we know it is a holiday. By the way, the word ‘holiday’ is derived from ‘holy day’!

The use of different coloured inks, and this time by accountants, gave rise to another expression: ‘to be in the red’. When a businessman announces that he is in the red, he is informing the world that he is in debt. When it came to maintaining accounts, bookkeepers in the past, made use of two different coloured inks – red and black. When money was credited into an account, a black ink pen was employed to make an entry in the ledger. When money was taken out or debited, the figures were written in red ink. If the amount withdrawn was more than the amount credited, you were literally in the red!

People are seldom going to ‘roll out the red carpet’ for you or give you the ‘red carpet treatment’, if you are in the red! When you are given the red carpet treatment, you are given very special treatment: you are, in fact, treated like royalty. In the old days when the King and Queen stepped out of the palace, it was common practice for a red carpet to be spread out for them to walk on. According to some scholars, this practice of using a red carpet was started in India by the Moguls. Nowadays, such coloured carpets are rolled out for everyone: Heads of State, actors, sportsmen, etc. There was a time when it was thought that walking on the red carpet was “fit only for the feet of gods”.

There comes an occasion in every individual’s life when he feels like letting his hair down and enjoying himself. When he is in such a mood, he may decide to go out and paint the town red. The expression is normally used to mean to spend an enjoyable evening, usually drinking. Several interpretations have been put forward by scholars about the origin of this idiom. Some believe that it was the Romans who began the tradition of painting a town red. The story goes that whenever the Romans captured a town, they set about smearing the blood of their victims on all buildings. By the time they finished, most of the town was painted red! According to another theory, it was an eccentric Englishman who gave rise to this idiom: the Marquis of Waterford. The story goes that after a fox hunt, the Marquis and his friends got so drunk they went about painting the buildings in the town of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire in red. Read enough about red? Before you get the blues, let me stop.

S Upendran teaches at The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. He can be reached at supendran@gmail.com.